I enter what I think of as my current digital birth date<\/em>. I never reveal my natural birth date unless some clear need for knowing it is conveyed to me by the site I'm visiting. Law 2. Minimal Disclosure<\/a>. I take my inspiration from Jack Benny<\/a>. My photo makes it clear I'm no spring chicken.<\/p>\n Moreover, I'll continue doing things this way until sites are willing to encrypt, audit, provide a usage statement and indemnify me for loss or misuse. Oh, and one more thing – they have to agree to stop treating me as though my age reveals my tastes (for example, stop assuming I never grew out of the Beatles). I'll be revealing my age, but I think of this as “ageism”.<\/p>\n I have to admit I had a small moment of reflection when I received a flood of Facebook birthday greetings and it wasn't my natural birthday (thanks folks!) Especially when one of them was from my sister. But hey. These are my digital friends, and my digital birthday is just as good as any other. It's the thought that counts, and I found it touching.<\/p>\n So you can see that I'm just a less contemplative person than Pamela Dingle<\/a>, who got me to fess up by writing this piece<\/a>: <\/p>\n Today I actually for just ONE single minute paused to seriously contemplate the consequences of lying on a Web 2.0 registration form.<\/p>\n The site that caused this momentary lapse in common sense was Facebook:<\/p>\n It turns out that I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to supply my correct date of birth to Facebook. I would have been more than happy to assert that I was over 13 \u00e2\u20ac\u201d but a complete DOB is just too much information. And yet \u00e2\u20ac\u201d if I lie, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m violating the terms of service: I started wondering – does this mean I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t register a pseudonym on Facebook? Am I only legally able to register my \u00e2\u20ac\u0153real\u00e2\u20ac\u009d name? And if this is the case, what about all the other sites that I have pseudonymous names registered at?<\/p>\n Who knows, IASNAL (I am *so* not a lawyer) but if you were to ask me, it seems like the majority of accounts I have registered at the following sites are already in violation of the TOS:Flickr<\/font><\/a>: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6provide true, accurate, current and complete information about yourself as prompted by the Service\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s registration form\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n Multiply<\/font><\/a>: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6provide certain limited information about you as prompted to do so by the Service (such information to be current, complete and accurate)\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n![\"Facebook](\"\/wp-content\/images\/2007\/08\/birthdate.jpg\" "\\"Facebook")
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\nFacebook<\/font><\/a>: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6you agree to (a) provide accurate, current and complete information about you as may be prompted by any registration forms on the Site (\u00e2\u20ac\u009dRegistration Data\u00e2\u20ac\u009d); (b) maintain the security of your password and identification; (c) maintain and promptly update the Registration Data, and any other information you provide to Company, to keep it accurate, current and complete;\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
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